For Immediate Release
June 9, 2009

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Washington, DC…The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) has recommended to the Acting Archivist of the United States 82 grants of $5.9 million for projects in 39 states and the District of Columbia. These recommendations include 31 grants through the State and National Archival Partnership grants, totaling just over $1.15 million, to enable various archives in the states to offer programming and services.

Grants totaling $1.85 million were recommended for 23 archival projects. Seventeen went to basic projects ranging from the Outer Banks History Center in North Carolina to the establishment of an archives for the American Choral Directors Association in Oklahoma City and to the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore. Six went to detailed processing projects, including the archives of the papers of Senator Robert Dole, the archives of LaDonna Harris and Americans for Indian Opportunity, and the records of the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

A grant to the University of Wisconsin will enable the School of Library and Information Sciences to run for the next three years the Archives Leadership Institute, which was begun in 2008 to provide leadership development for a new generation of archivists.

Grants totaling $2.6 million were recommended for 25 documentary editing projects—from the Papers of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidential Recordings Project. Two subventions were awarded to university presses to defray the cost of publishing volume 20 of the Revolutionary War Series of George Washington and the fourth volume of the papers of Civil Rights leader Clarence Mitchell, Jr. View the full list of spring 2009 recommended grants.

At the spring meeting in May, Kathleen Williams, Executive Director of the NHPRC, presented the grant applications and policy issues to the full Commission, which also welcomed its newest member, Timothy Ericson, who represents the Society of American Archivists. The Commission also heard a presentation by representatives of the University of Virginia Press's electronic imprint, Rotunda (rotunda.upress.virginia.edu). They demonstrated the functionality of the publisher's American Founding Era project, which is publishing online editions of the papers of key figures from the early years of the Nation.

The Acting Archivist of the United States, Adrienne Thomas, is the Chairman of the Commission. The NHPRC is the sole federal funding agency whose only focus is the documentary heritage of the United States. Established in 1934, it has awarded grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to vital historical documents.